Makin' Lemonade

Sometimes our days aren't so sunshiny.  You know what I mean.  

Some days we are handed a bunch of sour lemons and absolutely no sugar to sweeten things up.  And if you have ever tried to make lemonade without the sugar all you get is sour water.  You need the sugar to make it lemonade.
So what to do when your day (or your week or your month or even your year) holds a bunch of sour lemons and it seems like there is no sugar to be had?
Here's what I do.  I say to myself, "Beth, make some lemonade.  Find the sugar, it's somewhere."  Because while I might not have been handed the sugar or it's not readily visible, it is there...somewhere.  And I need to find it.  So I begin to look for ways to make lemonade.  (In fact, some days my answer to the question "How are you today?" is , "I'm makin' lemonade today!" and that is a big clue that I feel like I've got a bunch of sour lemons and I'm looking for the sugar.)
I have found that I can find the sugar easier when I am more in tune to the simple and little things.  Who says that sugar is found in big and sweeping gestures?  More often than not it's found in the smaller, almost unnoticeable things.  For example, a week or so ago a friend of mine found some sugar for her day in an almost unnoticeable act of kindness.  She was backing out of her driveway while school drop-off happened to be going on.  Her street was lined and she was sitting in her driveway waiting when a car stopped and gave her space to back out.  That was sugar my friends.  My friend might have missed that bit of sugar if she hadn't been tuned in to look for things that cause her to be grateful.  Being grateful for things makes the sugar a lot easier to find.
That's the key to lemonade makin' and sugar findin'.  Gratefulness.  When we can't find anything to be grateful about we are in big trouble.  When we can't even muster up the gratefulness for the things we don't think about (but should) and the things that we take for granted (but shouldn't) that is sour lemons.
So the next time you find yourself with a bag full of sour lemons and no sugar, begin to look for ways to make lemonade - find the sugar, it's there.